At A Glance: Germany

As Europe’s largest economy and second most populous nation, Germany is a key member of the continent’s economic, political, and defense organizations. Divided after World War II, the decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German reunification in 1990.

CAPITAL: Berlin

POPULATION: 84,220,184 (2023 est.)

GOVERNMENT TYPE: Federal parliamentary republic

HEAD OF STATE: President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (since March 2017)

HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (since December 2021)

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH: bicameral Parliament consists of: Federal Council or Bundesrat (69 seats statutory, 71 current; members appointed by each of the 16 state governments); Federal Diet or Bundestag (736 seats statutory, 736 for the 2021-25 term - total seats can vary each electoral term; currently includes 4 seats for independent members; approximately one-half of members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote and approximately one-half directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote; members’ terms depend upon the states they represent)

ETHNIC GROUPS: German 86.3%, Turkish 1.8%, Polish 1%, Syrian 1%, Romanian 1%, other/stateless/unspecified 8.9% (2020 est.)

LANGUAGES: German (official); Danish, Frisian, Sorbian, and Romani are official minority languages

RELIGIONS: Roman Catholic 26%, Protestant 23.7%, Muslim 3.6%, other 4.8%, none 41.9% (2021 est.)

GDP: $4.424 trillion (2021 est.)

EXPORTS: cars and vehicle parts, packaged medicines, medical cultures and vaccines, aircraft, industrial machinery, medical instruments. Top export partners include: United States 9%, China 8%, France 8%, Netherlands 6%, Italy 6% (2021)

IMPORTS: cars and vehicle parts, medical cultures/vaccines, packaged medicines, crude petroleum, natural gas, computers. Top import partners include: China 10%, Netherlands 10%, Poland 7%, Italy 6%, France 6% (2021)

Source: 2023 CIA World Factbook